


Where To Begin

by Thalius



Category: Halo (Video Games) & Related Fandoms
Genre: Blue Team - Freeform, Confessions, F/M, First Kiss, First Meetings, Fluff, Making Out, Minor Original Character(s), Pining, Prompt Fill, Rating May Change, The Ferrets, Third Wheels, Warnings May Change, like eight of them, strong teenage dream vibes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-24
Updated: 2019-09-30
Packaged: 2020-07-12 13:03:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 17,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19946623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thalius/pseuds/Thalius
Summary: A collection of filled prompts for the 30-Day Halo OTP Prompt Challenge.





	1. Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> As it says in the description, this is for a prompt challenge done with a group of other halo buddies. The full prompt list can be [found here](https://otp-imagines-cult.tumblr.com/post/133309701572/30daychallenge1) for anyone who is interested!

She tried to figure out how much sleep she’d gotten in the last four days. The number wasn’t really all that important, but it would be nice to know her limits. 

“You’ve really never been in zero-G before?” Olivia asked her. Veta opened her eyes and looked across the cockpit of the _Silent Claw._ They’d cleared the conflict zone, so the Gammas had removed their helmets, as had Tom and Lucy. Fred only had his tech suit on, but Kelly and Linda stayed buttoned up in their Mjolnir, and she found herself wishing for the same luxury. 

“No,” she replied, becoming aware of the harsh grip she on the crash harness and released her hold on it to flex her fingers. They ached, and so did her wrists and forearms and the rest of her body. 

“Like ever?”

“Homicides don’t generally happen in open vacuum.” She tried to keep the irritation out of her voice. She was their boss now. What a terrifying thought. 

“So you’ve never been on a spacecraft either,” Ash mused. “Just one planet your whole life?”

Had the questions been coming from Osman, she would have thought this another round of interrogation. The more likely explanation was that the Gammas couldn’t conceive of a life not lived in constant movement, constant battle. 

That did nothing to improve her mood. She’d just agreed to work for the people who’d done that to them.

She took a deep breath, gave Ash one of the last smiles she had left in her, and said: “You’ll have to show me the way of things when we get there.”

He grinned back at her before settling back in his seat. They were quiet after that, and she closed her eyes again. She was nauseous from the lack of gravity and the restraint was making her claustrophobic in more than one way, so she unfortunately didn’t pass out. But she did try to count the hours she’d been asleep before then. It felt like a pressing concern for some reason.

Most of the last four days were a blur. Caves, bodies, gunfights, murderous AIs. Dead friends. A weasel sell-out of a boss. It was more violence and turmoil than she’d ever experienced in her life, and she was counting her teenage years in that. She wondered what ONI offered in the way of therapy.

“Something funny?”

Osman. She must have been smirking. Lopis didn’t open her eyes this time. “Hysterical, actually.”

Veta didn’t elaborate and relished the confused, awkward silence that followed. Nobody said anything else to her for the rest of the ride.

* * *

There were at least a dozen people waiting for them in Hangar Bay 4A of the _UNSC Ad Astra_ , Admiral Tuwa among them. Fred and Osman were the only ones not wearing armour, and so they saluted while the others stood at attention. He noticed that Lopis made herself small and stood off to the side, stealing furtive glances around the hangar and looking only slightly less cagey than she had on the Owl.

“Glad to see you all made it in one piece,” Tuwa said in greeting. Her eyes flicked to Fred. “Well, mostly.”

He suppressed his chagrin. He would probably be doing that a lot in the next forty-eight hours. Destroying a full set of Mjolnir would have been bad enough without losing a Forerunner ancilla, a new species of Huragok, and turning an independent colony into an active warzone on top of it. None of that had been the fault of Blue Team, which was their only saving grace, but still. The debrief would be rough.

“But we’ll discuss that later. I can see you’re all in need of medical attention first.” She looked to Lopis and nodded her head. “Welcome aboard, Inspector. Happy to have you as our newest recruit.”

The reminder of her change in employment made Lopis glower, but she was still cordial enough to ground out a tired “thanks.”

Tuwa dismissed them for the moment. Kelly and Linda headed for the Mjolnir assemblies, and Lucy and Tom went to the mobile locker modules beside them to take off their SPI. A host of techs swarmed to the Gammas, three of whom held needles at the ready.

Fred stayed with them as the round of antipsychotics were administered to make sure none of them became combative with the techs, remembering Mark’s earlier altercation with the sergeant. He’d been well briefed on the potential threat of them skipping doses, but this had been the first time he’d seen it in action. They’d all been keeping it together wonderfully, given the circumstances, and he’d tell them as much later, but he still stayed. Just in case.

Fred sat on some strapped down cargo as he watched the techs tend to Mark, Olivia and Ash. He waved off a corpsman attempting to force him toward the medical bay and watched Lopis do the same, who was looking at the Gammas with a fierce protectiveness. 

“I’ll be with them,” he assured her. She turned then, looked at him seated on the crates, and then headed over to him with a slow, limping gait. The nurse behind her was not pleased.

“What are they doing?” she asked, sitting down beside him. She let out an exhausted huff of breath.

He watched the techs work, unlatching ports in the SPI and hooking them up to temp IVs and power packs. They’d all taken a beating, and SPI was far less hardy than Mjolnir.

“Giving them their Smoothers—and some analgesics, if I were to guess. Olivia especially. Her armour ran dry of their reserves a while ago. It’s better to do when they still have their armour on. Gets into their system faster.”

“And what about you?” 

He looked down at himself. The nanocomposite bodysuit was still in good shape, which was a plus, but even then its surface was pockmarked and scorched from the battle in Wendosa. He knew beneath it that his skin would be a mottled mess of bruises and burns. 

“I’ll head to the medbay once they’re taken care of,” he said, loudly enough for the hovering nurses to hear. They were both getting glared at, but he also knew they were glad the Gammas were being supervised, obviously not wanting their fellow servicemen to be killed while tending to a group of unhinged Spartans.

“I’ll wait with you then,” she sighed, settling back into the crates. 

He frowned at her. “You should get some rest.”

“They’re my team now,” she muttered, and gave him the ghost of a smirk. “Not yours.”

He returned the expression with a twinge. “Suppose so.”

“‘s weird,” she continued, closing her eyes. “Talking to you out of armour. And not in a warzone. You’re a lot less loud.”

He chuckled. “Yelling seems to be the only thing that makes you listen. Which still holds,” he added, raising a brow, though she didn’t see it.

She shrugged. “But you’re just as pushy.”

“Likewise, Inspector.”

Still without looking, Lopis held out her hand to him. “Well it’s nice to meet you for real, Lieutenant.”

He looked down at her hand. He remembered meeting her four days ago. He remembered the look of open distrust and outrage she’d given him the moment she’d seen him, clearly convinced he was nothing more than muscle for the research battalion. He remembered her conviction that he and his team were a pack of serial murderers. It felt like a lifetime ago.

“Glad to be on the same side this time,” he replied, taking her outstretched hand finally. She snorted as if he’d told a joke, then let her hands drop into her lap. 

“I’m gonna take a nap here,” she said, her tone resolute. “The nurses can carry me to the medbay for all I care.”

“I wish I had the same luxury.”

“Ha! That would certainly be a sight.”

Lopis quieted then, and he heard her breathing quickly even out as he watched the Gammas. Ash would look back at them every so often, flashing a tired grin that Fred always made sure to return. 


	2. Realization

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day Two: Realization - The first time a member of your OTP (or both members!) realized they had feelings for the other.

“I think it’s funny,” Kelly informed him.

“Of course you do.” He could feel Sunder like a headache working down his spinal column, working, wondering, accommodating.

“Whatever your previous baggage with AIs, I would ask you put those aside. If possible, Lieutenant,” Sunder added, and he heard the smile in her synthetic voice. “They are not sins I’m guilty of.”

He realised he was being rude and suppressed a sigh. “My apologies. I’ve never been comfortable interfacing with AIs.”

“And I’ve not had the pleasure of being paired with a Spartan fireteam before,” she replied. She was being housed equally in three separate chips, each aspect interfaced with a member of Blue Team. After the destruction of Damon, Osman had informed him that because he was “having significant difficulty keeping his Mjolnir in functionable form”, she was divvying up the new AI they’d been approved for to mitigate further potential losses. It was a demotion of responsibility that was putting him in a foul mood, and neither Kelly nor Sunder were being helpful.

For what it was worth, Linda seemed just as properly upset about the situation as he was. She had complained to him and Kelly endlessly about being paired with Athos during her deployment to the Sephune System, and she was making her displeasure known now by not uttering a word.

Kelly seemed to be the only one of them who was enjoying it. He could see her helmet bobbing faintly as she spoke, though it wasn’t over TEAMCOM, so she must be chatting with Sunder. 

Fred suppressed another sigh and looked across the bay where the Gammas were suiting up. He knew how excited they were to be back in SPI again—they’d often go months without using it, which he tried not to think about too much. It was already a downgrade from Mjolnir, and lacking even that, all they had was their own constitution and quick thinking. Something the three of them had in spades, but so had all the other Spartans, and it hadn’t helped them. Wits weren’t worth much when faced with Covenant glassing beams. Even in full suits of armour.

“You’re well, Lieutenant?” Sunder asked. “Your blood pressure—”

“Fine,” he replied, then added, “Thank you.”

He checked his HUD’s chronometre and, seeing that they still had an hour forty-five until launch, headed over to the Gammas. He saw Lopis among when he got closer, who had been initially obscured behind Ash’s broad shoulder. He knew the IIIs had undergone puberty much earlier, but they still looked like they were growing. Mark’s features had sharpened further since he’d last seen him; Olivia had gotten even taller; and Ash looked like his muscle mass had finally caught up to his lanky frame. They looked almost like adults now. Almost.

As he approached, he caught Lopis talking. None of them had their helmets on yet, so her voice carried across the deck to him easily 

“—guys have been itching for another direct conflict, but—”

“This’ll be easy-peasy,” Olivia said, cutting her off. “It’s just some Innies.”

“If it was ‘easy-peasy’ they wouldn’t send in Spartans,” Lopis replied sternly. “So I’m telling you—”

“To  _ be careful,”  _ the three of them said back to her in unison.

“I’m being serious!”

“Like ‘Livi said, easy-peasy,” Ash said, hoping to reassure her. It didn’t seem to be working. Then he glanced at Fred, who was standing behind them. “Right, LT?”

Lopis’s eyes flicked to his, her expression hard and serious. A request for reinforcements. 

Fred tipped his helmet toward her and switched to his external mic. “Listen to your mother.”

“Oh my god, you’re no help.” She threw her hands up, which were gloved and armoured in an identical set of SPI the Gammas were wearing—only much smaller. “Just—be careful, all of you. I can get chewed out by Osman for a botched job, but I can’t replace any of you.” 

None of them responded. The Gammas quieted, the teasing grins slipping from their faces. Lopis glanced at the three of them, raising a brow. “Are we clear?”

“Aye,” Ash said, his mouth twisting back into a smile. But it wasn’t a grin. 

“Good. Go double check re-supply.”

“We did that already.”

“Do it again. We’re about ninety minutes out and we’re packing a lot. I want full confirmation we have everything.”

They nodded and headed off toward the Pelican without any further complaint, the mention of how close they were to deployment sobering them. It was just busy-work to keep them occupied, usually assigned to keep jitters to a minimum. He’d done the same for himself and his Spartans countless times. 

Fred stepped up beside her. “Worried?”

“Yes,” she replied, giving him a disapproving scowl. “They’ve been restless for a while. I don’t want them doing anything reckless.”

“Well they took your warnings to heart, if it’s any consolation.”

“Oh really?” She stood back to get a better look up at his faceplate. Even in SPI, she only barely cleared his ribs. “‘Listen to your mother’?”

“You told them they’re irreplaceable,” he said, not rising to the bait—much as he’d enjoy a mindless, jabbing conversation right now. “It means a lot.” 

A green status light flashed in the lower left corner of his HUD from Linda. A summons order to regroup. He sent back amber,  _ just a moment,  _ not looking away from Lopis.

“Really?” she repeated, but the sarcasm was gone from her voice. She looked over her shoulder at her team. “They’re Spartans. They must know that.”

“They’re IIIs,” he corrected her, and she looked back at him. He hesitated, then added, “They weren’t built the same.”

“What do you mean?” He could hear the edge creeping back, the same sharpness she’d used on him on Gao. His mouth twitched despite himself.

“You know I can’t say.”

Lopis didn’t fight him on that, surprisingly. She blew out a breath instead, then looked around for her helmet. “Well, whatever works.”

Fred watched her tuck her helmet under her arm and then look back at the Gammas. She still looked off-centre, deep in thought. “You can help me go over the mapping if you need something to do,” he offered.

She laughed. “Trying to distract me?”

“If it helps.”

“Nothing helps,” she muttered, which got a laugh out of him.

“No, not really,” he agreed.

“I’m—I’ll be fine, actually. Thanks, Fred. We’ll be groundside soon enough.” She grinned up at him, doing a decent job of covering up her worry. “I can see Kelly and Linda glancing over here. I think they want you.”

He looked over his shoulder. Kelly had her head cocked; Linda was staring straight at him. He flashed them a green status light, then turned back and nodded to her. 

“Deep breaths,” he told Lopis before parting, making his way across the hangar back to Blue Team. 

“You know,” Sunder drawled inside his helmet. She’d been quiet for the duration of their chat, but he’d felt her listening. Observing. Now she made her reappearance. “This is already proving to be a singular experience.”

“Glad you’re entertained,” he replied. 

“I’ve never been interfaced with a Spartan before,” she mused.

“You said as much.”

“And certainly,” she continued, “not one who is infatuated.”

He stopped walking. He looked immediately at Kelly and Linda, who had relaxed once he’d confirmed he’d come back over and looked like they were talking to each other. They hadn’t heard Sunder. Of course not. She wasn’t using Blue Team’s comms.

He double checked his external mic had shut off, then ground out, “Excuse me?”

“The rush of dopamine, the elevated heart rate, the flush of blood to the face and neck,” she listed off. He could almost see her tapping her fingers. “Even by proxy, it’s a wonderful sensation.”

Fred began walking again, but not toward Kelly and Linda—he pivoted and marched to the nearest equipment console, forcing his fists not to ball up at his sides.

“What are you doing?”

Fred reached behind his head and ripped the interface chip from his helmet, then shoved it into the equipment console. Sunder appeared immediately, her canary-coloured avatar bursting sunlight in indignant rage. He didn’t wait around for her to admonish him.

“Lieutenant! Excuse me!” She used the hangar speakers to bark at him, her voice booming across the deck. It made several crewmen stop in their tracks and look up.

For a brief moment, he was too angry to care. “You are an  _ interference!”  _ He barked back, only turning around long enough to point an accusing finger at her. He made sure not to use external comms “You will  _ not _ be accompanying us on this mission!”

“Fred? What the hell is going on?” Kelly’s voice came over TEAMCOM. 

“I’m making the executive decision not to use Sunder on this mission. She is a distraction—”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Kelly replied, her tone pitching low. It was the same tone she always used to use on John when he was being unreasonable. 

“What did she say to you?” Linda asked.

“Yes, Lieutenant,” Sunder said, and she was speaking over TEAMCOM now, too. “What was it that I said to you?”

“The details are irrelevant,” he said, trying to keep his temper under control. This had already played out poorly. “The intent was all that matters. Kelly, Linda—”

“Ah, and what  _ was  _ my intent, hm?” He looked back and saw Sunder tapping golden nail to golden lip in faux contemplation. He felt his face flush further. “If anything,  _ you _ are the one facilitating wilful distraction. My observance of it is downstream of the issue. What is the adage? ‘Do not shoot the messenger’?”

He cut off TEAMCOM before she could continue, but he knew that wouldn’t last long. She immediate opened another channel, but he saw it was only with him.

“Lieutenant,” she began again, much calmer now—chillingly so—and he could hear Kelly and Linda marching toward him. “You are upset.”

“Obviously.”

“And you apparently do not wish for me to relay the contents of our last conversation to the rest of your team,” she continued, her tone hardening. “Which I will not do, provided you stop being a child and retrieve me from this—this console.” She said the last word with disdain. “You’ve just performed the equivalent of shoving me into a closet, and I am being remarkably cordial about the entire affair.”

“So you’re threatening me.”

“Wouldn’t you?” He saw her avatar grin. “So? Do we have a deal? I’d offer to shake your hand, but...”

Kelly’s gauntleted hand wrapped around his arm. He turned to see her faceplate staring back at him, but he could sense her unease even through the polarised visor.

“What’s the matter with you?” she asked. He could see other servicemen watching the display with confusion and curiosity in equal parts—the Gammas and Lopis among them. 

He was being incredibly unprofessional. And setting a poor example. And doing nothing to calm the nerves of his team. Fred clenched his jaw.

“Nothing,” he replied. “Just—annoyed.”

“Lieutenant?” Sunder repeated over their private channel. “Have you made a decision?”

“Belay my last order,” he said tiredly into TEAMCOM, then patted Kelly’s hand away before—hesitantly—walking back to the console. “And not another goddamn word about any of this,” he hissed to the AI.

She smiled up at him when he stood at the threshold of the console, her expression wicked. “I am here to serve,” she said in a sing-song voice. “Whatever you wish.”

“Good.” He unslotted her chip and re-inserted it into his helmet. Cold mercury flooded his brain, and the unpleasant sensation of a headache along his spine immediately flared back up. “Stop talking.”


	3. Reveal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day Three: Reveal - When your OTP confessed their feelings. Or were their feelings originally a secret until someone else intervened?

Ash considered about joking that Lopis hadn’t needed to worry about them after all, but decided against it. He shifted the weight of Fred’s arm to settle more comfortably across his shoulder instead. 

“Fifty more meters,” Kelly told them. Her and Linda flanked them on each side, watching for any stray combatants. The detonation had killed most of them—and caught Fred in the process—but there was never such a thing as being too certain. “How’s Fred?”

“Still breathing,” Mark reported, holding Fred’s other arm. The doubt in his voice made Kelly’s faceplate twitch toward them, but she kept her eye on the base. It was relatively easy as evacs went. The hangar was almost completely silent, but that meant there was nothing else to focus on, nothing to distract from the weight of Fred’s limp arm on his shoulders. Ash looked out across the deck and saw all the dead, mostly shredded to ribbons by the blast. They’d all caught some of it, but Fred had been the closest.

And they were moving way too slowly. Even with all the Ferrets carrying the Lieutenant, they had to be careful. Shrapnel had peppered a good deal of his armour, and pierced through the techsuit in several places. The most troubling one was a chunk embedded in one of his lungs. It made Ash think of Dante. Pink glassy mist from Needler rounds that would burst inside you and cut you up until all that was left was—

“Keep up,” Mark hissed at him. Ash picked up the pace and, unable to help himself, opened a channel with the Lieutenant. Harsh, gurgling breath immediately came over comms.

Ash clenched his jaw. “How you doing, LT?” 

“Been better,” he rasped back. The humour only made Ash’s teeth grind. 

“You will be soon,” he told him. It was an order. He made it an order. “Ride to the medbay’s only an hour.”

Fred didn’t reply to that. Ash didn’t close the channel, though. He wanted to hear his shallow breathing. It meant he was still alive.

The Pelican touched down almost the moment they got to the extraction point. Corpsman flooded out when the ramp descended, moving in to assist them. One grabbed Lopis and brought her up the ramp, though she complained the entire way. All of them were injured, and none of them wanted to think about it until Fred was looked after.

When they got him hauled up into the Pelican, they strapped him down on a litter position longways across the cockpit, and the rest of them took their seats. Ash watched the med techs pump more biofoam into Fred, and he could hear him hissing through clenched teeth over the still-open private channel. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Linda’s gauntleted hand grip hard around her knee.

“Good work, all of you,” Kelly said over TEAMCOM. “We’ll be back home in fifty-eight minutes. Let the techs know if you need any additional medical support.” 

Kelly continued talking, relaying the same thing he’d heard dozens of times. He was sure Kelly had heard the words even more often—she was Blue Team’s second in command.

“Mom,” Olivia said into the Ferret’s own closed comm system. “You holding up? BIOS says you’ve got muscle damage in your right thigh.

“Yeah,” Lopis said, pulling her hand away from the wound as a corpsman unbolted the damaged plating of her armour to tend to it. “Yeah, I’ll be fine. You guys okay?”

There was a chorus of “yeahs”, all of them full of worry and doubt. Nobody took their eyes off the Lieutenant.

As long as he’s breathing, Ash thought. All he had to do was keep breathing.

After the initial checks, making sure everyone was tended to, comms got real quiet. Even Sunder didn’t speak to any of them. He hated it, hated the silence, but he didn’t know what to say. He never knew what to say when this happened. He wanted to talk to Olivia and Mark, tell them it would be okay. Lopis might be in charge now, but he was still the leader of Team Saber. He should know what to do, what to say, to make everyone feel better. He found himself wishing, with a heavy twinge of irony, for Fred’s advice. The Lieutenant always knew what to say.

Ash snuck a look at Kelly. Her faceplate was glued to Fred, her hands clutching at the crash harness. Maybe he should ask Kelly. She always knew what to say, too. But he didn’t want to bother her. In some ways he still felt like an intruder the way he knew Mark and Olivia felt. What was a few years of knowing Blue Team stacked up against their lifetime of working together? 

Ash was mulling over all of that when he saw a new instance of a private channel pop up on his HUD. But it was with the Lieutenant again, replacing the old instance he’d opened. He frowned, and then heard Fred speak.

“D’you remember,” he murmured, his voice soft. “The medbay, back on  _ Silent Joe?” _

Ash tried to remember. That had been two years ago. Fred had a run-in—literally—with that huge LHD truck that bruised or cracked a good portion of his body. He’d made it off the Pelican and back into bay of the Prowler before he’d needed help walking. Kelly and Linda had done most of the assisting, swearing at him the entire time to stop moving. The Ferrets had tended to Lopis, who’d been so worn out by being dragged through the mine that she’d needed help walking, too. 

“You said,” he continued, breathing hard. “You said ‘especially a Spartan’. I never—I’ve never—”

Fred went silent again, his words replaced with harsh breathing. Ash tried to recall what Fred was talking about. Maybe he was just really out of it, jumbling things up in his head—

“I should’ve… I wanted to kiss you,” he rasped. “I should’ve said.”

Ash didn’t say anything for a long moment. He wanted to laugh, in spite of everything. At least he knew what the Lieutenant was talking about now, and it definitely wasn't for his ears.

“Lieutenant, who... do you think you’re talking to right now?”

“Ash?” he murmured. “What…?”

“Jump in heart rate,” Kelly reported, her voice come through an external mic. Ash looked up at her. “What’s happening?”

“He’s alright,” Sunder said, speaking for the first time since they’d boarded the Pelican. “He’s just thinking too hard.”

The techs still kept a close watch on him. His Mjolnir has a defib unit and full shock-response medical suite built in—better than any equipment they could use inside a Pelican. Kelly and Linda’s heads cocked, something too faint for most people to notice, but he could tell they were talking. Then Fred’s head shifted, too, and he realised they were all talking to each other. Kelly was probably admonishing him.

Ash hoped that hadn’t been some deathbed confessional. He also hoped he hadn’t inadvertently put stress on Fred by telling he’d opened the wrong comm channel. But he also didn’t want to tell Kelly what happened, because then he’d have to say what their conversation had been about.

“Thanks for covering,” he said to Sunder. 

“No problem,” she replied, her grin audible in her tone. “This isn’t the first time.”

Ash frowned. It only took him a moment to figure out what she meant. “Wait, is that what his freak-out was about?”

“Who’s to say?”

“What actually happened?” Ash made sure not to turn his head toward Lopis. “Did he say something to Mom?”

“I’m not at liberty to divulge that information.” 

Ash settled back in his seat. He didn’t reply to Sunder, or say anything else for the rest of the ride. He didn’t have to.

* * *

Veta held out her leg to inspect the bandage. She’d have to wear it for a few days at least, and change it every few hours. Right now it was slathered up with a topical anaesthetic, but she knew the pain would return soon enough.

“You’ll have a cool scar,” Olivia said, watching her look at her leg. “Just like us.”

Veta gave her a smile. “Just like you,” she agreed. “They’re a pain in the ass in the meantime, though.”

“That’s half the fun,” Mark interjected. All of them had some kind of patchwork bandage on them, and his was taped over his left arm. 

“Fun,” she repeated, and he grinned. 

“Keeps life interesting,” he clarified.

“That’s one word for it.” She looked up to Ash, who was curled up on the top bunk in their quarters. He was picking at a pull in his blanket. “You’re awfully quiet.”

He shrugged in response, not looking up.

“He’s probably thinking about Dante,” Olivia said.

“I’m not,” Ash bit back. “Not now, anyway.”

Veta looked between the three of them, who all looked a lot more forlorn than they had a moment ago. “Can I ask who Dante is?” she asked as gently as possible.

Ash shrugged again, more aggressively this time. Olivia cast her eyes to the floor, and Mark didn’t move at all. “Doesn’t matter,” Ash answered for them. “He’s dead. The Lieutenant isn’t.”

“You guys did really well,” she told them, trying to keep the worry out of her voice. “Fred would’ve died without your help.”

“I guess.” Olivia folded up her feet and laid down on the bunk opposite Veta. “Still feels shitty.”

“Yeah,” Mark murmured. 

Ash ripped the stray strand of fabric out from his blanket. It made a faint shredding noise, and then he snapped it off with a quick tug. 

“Something’s bothering you.”

“I can’t tell you.” Ash wrapped the string around his finger, then pulled tight and watched the tip of his finger go red. 

“Is it about Dante?”

“No.”

Olivia kicked a foot up against the frame of Ash’s bed. “Stop being whiny. What’s the matter?”

“I can’t tell you!”

“Why not?”

“It’s not about you.” He reached over the edge of the bed and swatted at Olivia’s leg. 

“Do you want to talk out in the hall?” Veta asked.

“Oh, come on,” Mark said. “What could you possibly tell Mom that you can’t tell us?”

“Yeah, what the hell?”

“I didn’t say anything about that!” Ash yelled back at them. “I didn’t say I could tell Mom. I don’t know if I can.”

Veta took a deep breath and tried a different approach. “It’s alright if Ash wants to keep something private. Is there someone you think you can talk to?”

Ash finally looked up from his string. “I don’t know. Maybe the Lieutenant.”

“He might be awake. You can go talk to him if he is.”

Ash swung his legs around and let them hang off the bed. Olivia looked like she was about to strike at them, but Veta gave her a warning look.

“I don’t know. Maybe I’ll just tell you.”

“Tell all of us,” Mark said. “We’ll just bother you until you do.”

Veta frowned. “That’s not—”

“Then you have to promise not to tell anyone,” Ash said. “I mean it. Not Linda, not Kelly, not the Captain, not Osman. Nobody. No matter what.”

“Ash, you do not have to tell anybody anything you don’t want to—”

“It’s fine.” He jumped down and ducked under the bed to point at Olivia. “As long as you guys promise.”

“Okay, I promise.”

Ash looked up at Mark. He nodded. “Promise.”

“Okay.” Ash sat down on the floor and put his hands on his knees. “Fred opened a channel with me by accident on the Pelican ride back.”

“By accident?”

“I think he wanted to talk to each of us privately,” Ash said. “But, well, he got confused.”

“And?” Olivia asked.

Ash looked over at Veta. “He said ‘do you remember when you said “especially a Spartan” to me on  _ Silent Joe?’ _ . I’m paraphrasing but it was basically that.”

She felt her face heat and did her best to control her expression. “He opened a channel with you thinking he was talking to me?”

“My name’s right below yours on the roster,” Ash said. “That’s my guess. I also had a comm open with him before that, but, I dunno.”

“Wait, what does that mean?” Mark asked. “‘Especially a Spartan’?”

Veta sighed. “It was from a conversation I had with Fred right before we shipped out back to the Mill. It was after the op wrapped up with the Keeper base. Is that all he said?”

“He also said he should’ve kissed you,” Ash said.

Olivia’s eyes widened. “He said that to  _ you?” _

“No, dummy, to Mom. Or he thought he was saying it to her.” Ash’s hands clenched on his knees. “Then I finally realised what was going on and asked him if he knew he was talking to me, and then—well, he stopped talking.”

“Huh.”

They were all silent for a moment. Veta made sure to keep her eyes fixed to the blanket directly in front of her.

Ash shook his head then. “I didn’t say anything because—well, it’s not my business, but—”

“Well, do you?”

Veta looked over at Mark. “Do I what?”

“Wanna kiss Fred?”

Her eyes narrowed. “That’s not any of your business.” 

“It is now, since Ash told us,” Olivia said.

“You guys were threatening me,” he said in defense. 

“So, do you?”

Veta sighed. “I need some time to process what Ash just told me—”

“Maybe don’t tell Fred you don’t want to kiss him right now,” Olivia suggested. “I don’t want him to die from shock.”

“Can you guys be quiet for a minute?” She rubbed at her temples. She needed a cigarette, or a drink or something. 

“If you guys do kiss,” Mark said, grinning. “Do we get to call Fred Dad?”

“I’m going for a walk,” she announced, shoving up from the bed and stepping around Ash. “Thank you for telling me, Ash.” She looked at Olivia and Mark. “Not a word. Understood?”

“Awe, don’t be mad. We’re sorry—”

“I’m not mad,” she said. “I’m not mad. I just need to—think. Okay?”

“Okay,” they all said, and then she closed the door to their room.

* * *

The first thing he saw was Kelly and Linda standing at the foot of his bed. He could see the uneven bulk of bandages disrupting the lines of their clothes, but they  _ were  _ bandages, and they were out of armour to boot, so that meant they were back on the ship. 

He cleared his throat and they both looked up. Deep lines of worry creased both of their faces, and Kelly reached out to touch his foot. “You’re awake.”

“Yeah.” He felt the tickle of a nasal cannula in his nose. He also couldn’t feel anything from his left collarbone to nearly his left hip, and looked down. Fresh incision marks left pink ribbons of scar tissue on his chest. The rest was hidden by a blanket. 

“How do you feel?” Kelly and Linda came over to either side of the bed. His fingers twitched as he touched Linda’s arm. 

“I don’t feel much,” he replied, smiling. “Probably a good thing.”

“You’re on a lot of painkillers,” Linda said. “I’m jealous. Must be a good high.”

“Mm.” He looked around and saw that the other beds were empty. That either meant something very good or very bad. “What about everyone else?”

“Came away with minor injuries,” Kelly said. “You were the only one close enough to the blast to catch any lasting damage.”

“Lucky me.”

“You are lucky.” Linda’s tone was serious. “That was a close one, Lieutenant.”

He nodded. “I’m okay,” he told them both. “I’m okay.”

“You are now.” Kelly ran a hand through her hair. “But if you’re awake now, I think I’m gonna get some sleep.”

“You should… both of you.”

Kelly squeezed his arm, then nodded to the door. “We’ll come check on you soon,” she said.

“Don’t. I’m fine.”

She just rolled her eyes, then headed for the door. Linda followed after, giving him a serious parting look before they both exited the medbay.

He was only alone for a few minutes—or maybe it was hours, he couldn’t actually tell—when the door opened again. 

Fred looked toward the entrance of the bay and saw Lopis walking over to his bed. She gave him a smile that he returned easily, and stopped when she reached the side of his bed.

“Hey,” she said softly. “Finally awake.”

“Kind of,” he said, raising a hand and pointing weakly at one the hanging drips. 

“Ooh, morphine,” she said, reading off the label. “That’s fun.”

“Low dose, I think,” he said. “Can still think. Mostly.”

“How are you feeling?”

“Can’t feel much. This side’s frozen.” He tried to move his left shoulder but couldn’t. “So... good.”

“Good.” Lopis looked around for a moment, before walking over to the desk near the front and pulling the rolling chair over. She sat down next to him. Her expression was strange, or maybe he had more morphine in his system than he thought.

“You were injured too,” he murmured. “Kelly told me.”

“Just a nick on my thigh. No collapsed lung like you.”

“More like deflated.”

She didn’t laugh at the joke, so he looked up at the ceiling and swallowed. His mouth felt thick, and it tasted awful. “I’m okay,” he told her. “Had worse.”

“Unfortunately I believe you.” He felt movement by his hand. He looked down and saw her touching his fingers, ever so softly. He could barely feel it with all the frozen nerves. She looked up at him and met his eyes, and her smile turned shy. She took a deep, measured breath, then spoke. “But I’m glad you’re mostly lucid. I wanted to talk to you.”

“What is it?”

“Ash told me about your conversation in the Pelican.”

He frowned. “What conversation?” 

“The one about the  _ Silent Joe _ , in the medbay.” 

His face flushed. He remembered now. “I said that to Ash,” he said. It wasn’t really a question.

“Yeah.” 

“Great.”

She did laugh then. Another wave of heat crept up his neck, and his ears burned. He watched her run her finger along his hand, tracing an old surgical scar. And still he barely felt it.

“I have some more bad news on that front,” she said. “You may want to stay away from Olivia and Mark for a while.”

“He told them about it?” It. It was just it. He didn’t have to say it directly.

“Under some duress, yes.” 

He didn’t know what to say to that. There wasn’t anything to say. The only reason they were having this conversation was because he’d said something in the first place. 

Well, there was one thing.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured. “It was unprofessional.”

She pursed her lips. “I think I remember you telling me at one point that I never struck you as ‘particularly professional’ in the first place.”

He couldn’t laugh, because a whole section of his abdomen couldn’t move, but he did grin at her. “Suppose I did.”

“I don’t mind,” she continued. “It’s pretty cute, actually.” Then she slipped her hand into his, and he felt the warmth from her skin. “I went back and listened to the comm log, just to make sure Ash wasn’t pulling my leg somehow. Sunder gave me access.”

“Ugh.” 

“Shh. He wasn’t, thankfully. Which is why I’m here.”

He could see his heart rate pick up on the ECG. His eyes flicked to Lopis, who was smiling at him. It looked different, somehow. Softer.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to kiss you right now,” she said, laughing. “You’re high on narcotics and fresh out of surgery.”

He hadn’t realised he’d bunched up his shoulders. He relaxed them, and felt a twinge of pain along his spine. “That’s fair,” he replied, and she laughed at that.

“But we can definitely talk about it more when you’ve recovered,” she continued, squeezing his fingers. Gently, of course. He tried to flex them back, but they were still numb. 

“Okay,” he whispered. 

She smiled. “Okay.”


	4. First Kiss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day Eight, First Kiss: Exactly what it sounds like—make a piece inspired by/about your OTP’s first kiss.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll be posting these a bit out of order but I'll rearrange the chapters once I fill the rest of them!

She never got to have that conversation with Fred. They exited slipspace three days after he’d been admitted to the medbay, and the moment they had, Blue Team had shipped out to a proper medical facility. Veta had been asleep when they’d left. 

It left a clench in her chest that she tried to ignore as much as possible. Partings had taken on a specific kind of ritual with the Lieutenant, and one she always strangely looked forward to. They gave her an easy out if things got too serious, too close to something real. She’d planned on having that very conversation with him just before they were set to leave, and a denial of that opportunity made her surprisingly, irrationally despondent.

He’d sent her a short message, overly formal and straight to the point— _ Always a pleasure working with you, Inspector. I look forward to speaking with you soon _ —which had helped to unbind that clench somewhat, but she knew it would at least be a few months before they spoke face to face again.

So rather than pick at it and let it fester in her head, she buried it alongside the rest of her regrets and what-ifs and conversations that had ended too soon. She’d done when her father died, she’d done with Cee and Andera and Senola, and she could do it with Fred. He wasn’t dead—yet, but she buried  _ that  _ worry even deeper—but he was inaccessible, which was functionally the same thing right now.

She did such a stellar job of burying it that when she ran into him on the Chiron orbital facility over Mars months later, it didn’t hit her right away. 

It was a miserable time. Chiron was a training station specifically for microgravity acclimation and fighting in low-G environments. She’d worked up to forty-minute stints in the training bays, but the sessions always left her feeling deeply nauseated and, unexpectedly, claustrophobic. The lack of bodily control coupled with the constant reminder that she wasn’t decompressing in open vacuum only by the grace of a bit of titanium bulkhead probably had something to do with it.

“Don’t worry,” Ash had assured her. “Zero-G ops suck ass for everybody.” 

And it  _ had _ reassured her for a while, until she came to the realisation that if Zee-Gee was immensely difficult for Spartans, it was probably impossible for her. Several hours spent vomiting in her quarters after-hours only compounded her confidence that this was some fool’s errand Osman had assigned her. Her team was sympathetic, but that didn’t absolve her of the responsibility of training. 

So she was in a foul mood, to put it mildly, by the time she found out that Blue Team was stationed on Chiron. It was an accident, really; she’d overstayed her allotted time in the microgravity’s training antechamber for so long with her head between her legs, trying to get her stomach to stop doing flips, that she was still there when the next scheduled session began. It wasn’t the first time she’d done it, and usually the proceeding team politely ignored her, but this time the team wasn’t a group of ODSTs or Section-Three jackasses. 

“Inspector?” said somebody with Kelly’s voice, and her head snapped up to look for the owner. Which was a very bad, terrible decision; her vision swam, her abdomen clenched, and her mouth filled with acrid saliva. 

“Kelly?” she responded with a cough, blinking around the training vestibule. The lights were low, because she’d dimmed them, and it was hard to see above the tiny shafts of light that lit the floor every few inches.

A large boot came into view, and she followed the line of a thick calf that fed up into a thick knee and even thicker thigh, and eventually found, high above her, the Spartan looking down at her quizzically. “Hi,” said Veta, and took Kelly’s offered hand.

“Are you alright?”

“Not really,” she groaned, standing up. Then she saw Linda and Fred as the lights came back on properly. “Wait, Why are you guys here?”

“We could ask the same of you,” Fred replied, his expression equal parts surprise and concern. “Where’s the rest of your team?”

“Equipment training,” she said. “Way ahead of me. I’m just, uh, winding down. Trying not to throw up.” She realised they were only wearing their techsuits, not their usual full Mjolnir, and frowned. “Are you doing Zero-G shit too?”

“A refresher,” Fred explained. “We just arrived a few hours ago. We’re all a little rusty, so I put in a requisition for a full course here.”

“Because it sucks ass,” she said, coughing again. Kelly had let go of her hand, and she could mostly stand upright. Thankfully the wall was close by if that happened to change.

Fred smiled. “That’s one way to put it, yes. But I can walk you back to your quarters before we begin. You don’t look… stable.”

“I’ve never been stable,” she muttered, but nodded at his offer. “Sure, okay. I don’t want to disrupt your session—”

“I booked the bay for three hours,” he said. “A few moments won’t hurt.” He jutted his chin toward the door that opened up into the microgravity bay. “Start without me,” he said to Kelly and Linda. “I’ll be back shortly.”

“Three hours,” Veta whispered when they got out into the hallway. It was more of a large tube that ran the circumference of the orbital facility, but thinking about that only made her more dizzy, so for now it was just a hallway. “I can barely handle forty minutes.”

Fred shrugged beside her. She was still mostly able to walk by herself, so he was only operating on standby. “Been doing it for thirty-odd years,” he replied. “Mjolnir makes it easier, too. It’s why I wanted to begin without it. But it still, ah….”

“Sucks ass?” she supplied, and he grinned. 

“Yes.”

“Ash’s words, not mine.”

His expression lightened at the mention of them. “How are they doing?”

“Really well. And I don’t want to sound like a doting aunt, but they’ve grown a lot. I’m sure they’ll be excited to see you guys again, too.”

“Well, we’re here for the next four days—” Fred began, and then his hand shot out to catch her arm when she stumbled.

“I’m good,” she assured him, her other hand skimming the wall. “They gave me these—I don’t know, this drug. It helps. I usually bring it with me, but I left it in my room.”

His hand was really warm on her arm as she steadied herself, and it finally came back to her. Their conversation in the medbay, the audio transcript of his comm mishap in the Pelican that made her grin like some kind of ridiculous teenager when Sunder played it back for her, his short, simple message sent too late, after he’d already left. The clench in her chest returned.

They arrived at the lift down to the crew quarters far too soon. She played up how dizzy she felt for the last few metres it took to arrive at the elevator doors, and Fred kept a steadying hand on her bicep. When they stopped, she pressed her back to the wall and looked up at him. 

“I can make it the rest of the way,” she said, keying the button for the lift.

He frowned. “You don’t look very—”

“I’ll be fine, I promise.” She wanted to reach out and touch his arm, but that might be too forward, so she settled for a smile instead. “I’m glad I ran into you. Or rather, you guys ran into me.”

He smiled back. “I am, too.”

Fred looked older, more tired somehow. She often tried to ignore the ages of Spartans, mostly to keep herself sane, but it felt odd to think of him as old. He was just Fred. 

All the more reason not to keep putting important things off, she supposed. It was a surprise how much she missed him, and how much she hadn’t realised it until he was standing in front of her.

She took a deep breath and tried to squelch down the sudden thrum of anxiety running through her. “And we can have that talk later, if you like.”

His expression changed. He was still smiling, his eyes faintly crinkled and mouth quirked in the usual lopsided grin, but a rush of something flooded his eyes. Anticipation, she thought. She hoped.

“I’d like that, yes,” he said softly, after a beat of silence. Then the lift opened, and he looked toward the doors. “You’re sure you can walk?”

“Yeah, I’m good.” She turned, using the wall for leverage, and ambled into the elevator. Fred was still standing there, watching her with a knot in his brow, when the door closed.

* * *

The crew lounge was supposed to be communal, but he only saw the Gammas using it when he arrived. When they spotted him they gave him welcoming grins, not shocked expression, so Lopis must have told them that Blue Team had arrived on Chiron.

“Fred!” Olivia called from the couch, her legs hanging over the back and her head upside down. “Mom said you guys were here. Where’s Kelly and Linda?”

“Getting something to eat,” he replied. “Done training for today?”

“Yeah,” Ash said, but the word was drawn out, hesitant. Fred raised a brow, and Ash sighed. “Well, we still have some modules to do. But we have all evening for that. And they’re really boring.”

“The micrograv equipment ones?”

“The guy narrating sounds like he’s plugging his nose when he talks,” Mark complained. He was sitting on top of one of the tables cross-legged, with a stress ball in his hand. “What are you drinking?”

He looked down at the cup in his hand. “Not for me. Where’s Lopis?”

“In our room,” Olivia said, then made a show of sniffing the air. “Is that ginger? Are you bringing her tea?”

“She was pretty dizzy when I saw her. Thought this might help.”

He received three sets of very obnoxious grins. Fred ignored all of them and continued down the hall, deciding that now was the time to end this conversation. “Have fun!” Ash called as he read off the room numbers of the crewmen’s quarters. He also ignored that.

When he got to the Ferrets’ room, he knocked softly at the door. He heard a muffled “one moment!” followed soon after by a “it’s open.”

He pressed the automatic release on the door and stepped inside. The lights were dim, as they’d been in the vestibule where they’d found Lopis, and he spotted her sitting on one of the beds with a paper book in her lap. She smiled at him in greeting, and he realised his palms were sweaty. 

“Hey.”

“Hey,” he said back. Fred stepped further into the room and held out the cup of tea. “I hope you’re not allergic to ginger.”

Her expression turned curious and she reached out for it. It was still steaming, and she inhaled with a satisfied grin. “You’re sweet. I’m not, thankfully. Sit down,” she added, nodding to the edge of the mattress. She took a careful sip of the tea. “How was training?”

“‘Sucked ass’, as you put it.” He settled carefully on the edge, aware of how much his weight strained the mattress. 

She laughed and held out the cup to him. “Want some? I’m feeling pretty good now, just being indulgent.”

“I’m fine, thank you. What are you reading?” He cocked his head, trying to read the page header upside down. 

“A murder mystery. I think it’s called Hot Ice. It’s pretty bad.” 

He raised a brow. “A murder mystery?”

“I’m pining for the old times,” she explained. “Loose ends properly tied up. The evils of the world brought to justice. The detectives getting shitfaced in the bar to celebrate. All that.” She sighed, closing the paperback and setting it aside. “I’m just moping, really. Almost four years into this job and it still feels like day one sometimes.”

It took him a moment to figure out how to respond to that. “Not moping,” he said then, quietly. “It’s a hard adjustment, losing everything.”

Lopis’ smile turned sad, and he looked away. There was no way she could know what he was talking about, but her eyes were full of understanding. 

He cleared his throat, trying to slough off old memories. Focus. This wasn’t how he planned out this conversation. Not that he had much of one.

She took another sip, then handed him the cup. “Set this on the table for me.”

“You don’t want any more?” He reached over and placed it on the bedside table.

“Later,” she replied, pushing off the wall and sitting on the edge next to him. Her leg bumped his. “I want my hands free.”

He swallowed hard and wiped his palms down along his thighs. Maybe it was just condensation from the cup.

But then her fingers came into view, settling over one of his hands. He stilled and looked over at her.

“Did you come here for a conversation, or a chat?”

He hesitated. “I’d—um, planned on a conversation, but—”

“But?”

She was smiling. His ears felt hot. “I don’t know what to say,” he admitted. He’d tried his best to plan, to rehearse, but he’d come up empty, so he’d come here instead.

Lopis slid the rest of the way off the bed and stood up, not letting go of his hand. She turned and faced him, her expression still amused. It settled some of his nerves. He was taking this too seriously. 

“Well,” she began, dragging the word out, and he saw the nervousness beneath her casual grin. “There’s not a whole lot to say.”

“I suppose not,” he replied, mostly to fill the silence. Apologising probably wouldn’t help, and he’d done that already. He wasn’t even sure why he felt the urge to—

“I want to kiss you, too.”

That sent a jolt through him. The stomach-in-the-air sensation just before a hard drop. That was surely a lot to say, wasn’t it? Perhaps she meant it in terms of absolute volume, not quality. It shouldn’t have been unexpected, either, but it was. 

“Fred?”

“Sorry, yes.” 

Her brow quirked. “Yes what?”

He frowned. “I just—yes. Um. I agree. That’s good, I mean.”

She laughed as if he’d said a joke. “Have you kissed anyone before?”

He shook his head. Much easier to answer. 

Lopis nodded like the news didn’t surprise her and squeezed his fingers. “I’m not a huge expert myself,” she admitted, and he found that didn’t surprise him all that much either. She was an exceedingly prickly person, and this was the softest he’d ever heard her speak before. “But the mechanics are fairly simple.” She paused as if waiting for a response, and when he didn’t offer one, mostly because he wasn’t sure what she was expecting, she added: “If you’re wanting to be filled in.”

He got the sense she was asking another question. He nodded yes, to each of them, and her eyes shone with excitement.

Her other hand grabbed his, and he watched them move in the dim light. “For starters... you usually settle your hands on the person’s waist, or arms, or face.”

He let go of her hands and set them gently, tentatively, around her biceps. She smiled and stepped closer in the space between his legs. “And you have to close your eyes,” she continued, framing her fingers around his face. 

He drew away even as he felt his pulse jump. “Why?”

She was standing close enough that her breath blew onto his face when she laughed. “I’m not pulling a fast one on you, I promise. And I don’t know, really. Helps you enjoy it more, I guess. I’ll close my eyes, too,” she promised, and he relaxed.

Standing, Lopis was almost his height, which was likely the only way this would work. She ducked in close, her nose brushing his. Every muscle along his spine tensed, relaxed, tensed again. His fingers tightened on her arms so they wouldn’t shake. He took in a deep breath and let his eyes close.

“Just move with me,” she whispered. “Ready?”

He nodded, felt her jostle with the movement, and then her mouth was on his.

His brow furrowed hard. He let out the breath he’d drawn in a moment before in a sharp exhale through his nose as her lips nudged once, twice against his. Her hands were warm on his face, her fingers calloused but startlingly tiny as they framed along his jaw. Her mouth was even warmer, exchanging soft breath with him. She tasted like ginger and honey, and he didn’t know why it hadn’t occurred to him that she’d taste like tea—that she would taste like anything at all. 

Lopis drew back, slowly and carefully, but it still felt sudden and abrupt because he hadn’t expected it to end so soon. His weight moved with her for a moment before he rebalanced on the mattress. She was still incredibly close, and warm, and she was smiling when she looked at him.

“You have to relax,” she whispered. He consciously unbound his shoulders at her words, let his fingers ease in their grip, and then Lopis slid a hand down to his mouth and pinched it between thumb and forefinger, puckering his lips.

He jerked back in surprise and heard her quiet laughter. “Your mouth is taut,” she said, pulling him forward with a hand at the nape of his neck. The warmth of her palm made him shiver, but he let her pull him back. “Like you’re frowning.”

“Sorry,” he said, but he kept his voice quiet, too. 

“It’s alright.” 

He let out another breath, and it left his lungs shaking. His heart throbbed so loudly in his ears that it was all he could hear, and he felt the muscles in his legs, his arms, his back twitching from the flood of adrenaline. It was both familiar and not. 

“You okay?” she asked, watching him try his best not to tense up every tendon in his body.

“I think so,” he replied honestly, swallowing around the knot in his throat. 

“Did it live up to expectations?”

He frowned at the question. Did it? He didn’t have any, really. He had no frame of reference for something like this. Almost none, anyway.

“I thought it would be… harsher,” he admitted, flushing. 

“Harsher?”

“More, ah, aggressive,” he explained. “Seen marines do this, and it’s never this—this gentle. But I liked it,” he added. He didn’t know what other words to use.

He could feel her fingers at the base of his skull, tracing the outline of the neural interface port. If he focused on it for too long he’d start shaking again, so he tried to think about their conversation. 

But it was difficult.

“There’s lots of ways to kiss,” she said. “Figured we’d walk before we started running.”

The thought occurred to him then that this wasn’t necessarily a singular, isolated event. Lopis was talking like she wanted to do this again, perhaps even right now, and it was  _ very hard _ not to think about how soft her fingers were on his skin and that his mouth was crowded with the smell of ginger and honey and that her leg was touching his and that she was still standing very, very close to him.

“Yeah,” he managed to get out, and her eyes drifted up to his again, full of intent. He was definitely shivering now.

“Relax,” she murmured, closer now, her nose butting up against his, and this time he leaned into her, let his jaw loosen and his mouth move with hers. That’s what she’d said to do, and it made sense now. 

She didn’t pull away from him again for a while.


	5. Flustered

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day Ten: Flustered: - Your OTP being flustered. It could be one member, it could be both.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fred learns about erogenous zones. NSFWish if you squint and kinda turn your head a little to the left.

It felt a little over-indulgent that this was how she was spending her days on Onyx, but somehow the world kept spinning and nothing catastrophic happened when she left the Gammas to their own devices and didn’t look at her work log. They  _ were  _ supposed to be on vacation, after all. And Fred certainly wasn’t complaining.

The forest beyond the Trevelyan research centre became more familiar with each outing. Beyond using it as an excuse to get away from a very crowded house full of people with no concept of personal privacy, she enjoyed the hikes. They made her legs burn and breath come short, and to her surprise, Fred was a decent conversationalist when out of an active war zone. But they hadn’t trekked all the way out here for a conversation.

“Open your mouth a little more,” she whispered, and felt him respond instantly. It was a surprise how soft and pliant he was when he wasn’t tensed up, angry, injured, or some combination of the three. He even moved slower, like he was pushing through water. She remembered what he’d said to her the first time she’d kissed him, that he thought it would be harsh and rough, and though she’d teased him about it some part of her had been just as surprised. 

She fumbled for a handhold and ended up grabbing his shoulder, pushing herself closer to his mouth. The problem of his height was an ongoing one, and sometimes they had to get creative to solve it. Fred helped by tightening his arm around her, pulling her close. She could feel his heartbeat throb against her own chest and grinned at how quick it was. She broke off a moment later, pressing her cheek to his, and paused to draw in a breath.

Their harsh breathing was the loudest thing in the forest. It had taken a while to get used to a forest with almost no sound, and it wasn’t for lack of fauna living inside it. She thought it had something to do with the odd, therapeutic aura the trees exuded, settling the animals into a perpetual stupor that kept them quiet, but she hadn’t shared her theory with Fred yet.

She felt his jaw flex against her cheek, back and forth, and she pulled away to see him rub at his chin. 

“Jaw gets sore after a while,” he explained with a lopsided grin. He spoke more quietly, too. 

She laughed. “Do you want to stop?”

“Not really.” He closed his eyes and let out a slow breath through his nose, stretching back on his elbows in the grass. Besides the flush of colour in his face and the quick pulse at his throat that hadn’t yet calmed down, he looked so at ease it would be easy to think he was sleeping. 

“Relax, then,” she said unnecessarily, shifting beside him in the grass. He opened his eyes, eyelashes sweeping low on his cheeks as he watched her. 

Veta sat up near his shoulders and leaned across his chest, cupping his jaw and tilting his head back. Creative solutions. “What are you doing?” he asked, his eyes fully opening. 

“It’s a less labour-intensive alternative,” she replied. “Head back a bit.”

She wondered if he’d so readily allow her to expose his throat if they weren’t sitting in a Forerunner equivalent of a nature spa. She hoped it was because he’d come to trust her, but either way, his ease was well-placed, and she had every intention of taking advantage of it. 

He tilted his head and pressed his cheek to his shoulder, bearing his neck. She traced the line of his throat down all the way to his collarbone and grinned when he swallowed a breath down. His skin was particularly rough here, both from bristling hair and continual contact with his gear. She bent down, starting near his ear, and kissed the skin just below the shell of it. 

He tensed and then shuddered, and she smiled into his skin. “Good?”

Fred nodded gravely. She laughed a little and a shiver ran through him as her breath blew over his ear, then she moved over, kissing his temple, then the point of his jaw, and trailed down to his neck. 

She no longer needed to press a finger to his chin to keep his head back. Now he let it hang, almost lolling as she placed kisses on his throat. When she closed her mouth and sucked gently on his skin, she felt his throat rumble in a groan. It was quiet, and quickly covered by a shaky exhale, but it still sent a thrill through her. 

She brushed her fingers across his jaw anyway, trying to get his attention. He looked up enough to meet her eyes—his pupils were wide, his eyelids heavy. She smiled. “Still good?”

“Yeah,” he said, clearing his throat. “Yeah, good.”

“Good.” She ducked down to his throat again and he automatically let his head fall back this time.

She went slower now, spending more time on each patch of skin she kissed. Not nearly enough to bruise him, but she wasn’t in any particular hurry. Fred slowly sunk into the grass as she kissed him, and by the time she swept across his throat, his back was fully pressed to the ground. With his arms free, he latched onto her, as if to make sure she wouldn’t go anywhere. He didn’t make all that much noise beyond the occasional gasp, but his pulse was hammering rapidly, and each breath came out in a sharp, shaking exhale. If he noticed any fumbles on her part, he didn’t show it.

Veta ended up lying across his chest, her face tucked by his head. She gave a final, soft kiss under the opposite ear and smiled when all the tension seemed to finally drain out of him. He let all the air escape his lungs and she sunk with his chest. If she let him, he’d probably fall asleep here, and she inclined to follow him.

But, well, his ear was right there. She leaned over and set her teeth, very gently, on his earlobe. 

He groaned, his arms wrapping around her, and this time she didn’t hold back a laugh. “Did you like that?” 

He groaned again. “I didn’t know,” he replied, his voice raspy like he’d been running. “That your neck could feel good. Or your ears.” 

She shifted a little to get into a more comfortable position and settled on resting her head on his chest. “Parts of your arm are that sensitive, too.”

“What?” He pulled an arm away and inspected it, twisting it above them in the filtered light. They’d spent enough time outdoors that his skin wasn’t quite as pale as it usually was, and it made all the scar tissue stand out more starkly on his body.

“Your wrist,” she said, watching him look at it. “The crook of your elbow, the inside of your upper arm. There’s lots of sensitive places.”

He frowned down at her doubtfully. She grinned and sat up, motioning for him to hand his arm over. He relaxed it and watched her as she held his forearm and pressed a thumb to the pulse at his wrist, right over a faded, surgical line that ran along the inner seam of his forearm. She rubbed her finger over it gently and watched the hairs on his arm stand up with gooseflesh. “See?”

Veta looked over at him and set his arm down across her legs. He seemed to be processing the news slowly. The characteristic furrow of his brow was a clear tell, and she reached over to smooth it down with a finger. He smiled at the touch and tracked the retreat of her hand with a languid gaze.

She settled her hand on his chest and quirked a brow. “Jaw still sore?”

Fred’s laughter jostled her a little. “No.” His other hand brushed her neck as he looked her over, like he was considering something. “Is it the same for you?”

“Is what the same?”

He was blushing again as he motioned to her. “If I did what you did.”

She grinned. “Oh, are you offering?”

“It just—felt good,” he whispered, looking away. “Really good.”

She leaned over and kissed him, which seemed to surprise him enough to look back up at her. “Yeah, it’s more or less the same,” she replied, smiling. “And maybe later.” She kissed him again, and he sat up on his elbows to meet her. They were just quick kisses, short and sweet, but she could still feel his heart speed up beneath her hand. “After.”

He nodded and pulled her close, and it was a while before she broke away again.


	6. First Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day Four: First Date - Your OTP’s first date. Where’d they go? Did the date go well or go horribly?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ties very loosely into [this undercover AU series](https://archiveofourown.org/series/863004) I have running.

She’d felt claustrophobic on spaceships before. It was a fairly frequent sensation. Nothing but a bit of bulkhead separating you from open vacuum, and a well-placed shot could remove that barrier in an instant. You’d decompress before you even realised what was happening.

She’d gotten better at not thinking about it. A lot better, actually. But this was a whole other bag.

Fred at least seemed just as uncomfortable as she was. He kept glancing up at the ceiling, which was made of thick, clear glass that gave an unadulterated view of the planet’s ocean. It should have been a brilliant display, but this was prime training grounds where anything could happen, up to and including heavy munitions detonating inside the casino’s inner plaza. Which would make the view of the ocean a whole lot more intimate. Thankfully their excursion was for the purposes of familiarising Fred with civilian environs, but it would be foolish to expect the entire night to go smoothly.

Veta placed a hand over Fred’s, which was folded neatly on the table in front of them. He looked down at her and relaxed a little.

“You good?”

He gestured to his ear with his free hand and shook his head in exasperation. “I can’t hear you,” he replied.

She smiled. It was incredibly loud inside the casino proper to  _ her _ , and she didn’t have to deal with super Spartan hearing. It was also heavily packed with civilians who wore equal amounts of perfume, sweat and alcohol on their breath. He was probably feeling very overstimulated. 

Veta hopped down from her seat and tugged at his shirtsleeve. “Come,” she ordered, then waved her hand in the direction she was headed. He followed after, sticking close and taking everything in with a watchful eye. 

She moved them into one of many restaurants that ringed the casino, finding a booth and seating them both. Fred slid in opposite her, a look of relief on his face. 

“Better?”

“Just some short-term hearing loss,” he said dryly, immediately fiddling with one of the flutes placed on the table. 

“Are you hungry? Seafood is probably good here, considering.” She opened the menu on the table. The prices were ludicrous, far more than she would ever be able to afford on an Inspector’s salary, but ONI’s business expenses line of credit was incredibly comprehensive. 

“We have time to eat?” He looked around the restaurant. He was getting better at not looking so hawkish about it, but he still had a ways to go.

“This is mostly just environmental training,” she said. “Acclimatising you to different civilian contexts. So yes,” she added, seeing his frown. “Have a look at the menu.”

Fred tensed when the waitress appeared a few minutes later, but he caught on when Veta ordered an appetiser. She talked him into a seafood charcuterie board and, to her everlasting pride, a glass of wine. 

“Just one,” he told her, and she smiled back at him. 

“Just one,” she agreed. “You’ll like it. Much better than the shit they serve on naval ships.”

“I’ve had wine before. It tastes like acid.”

“Well this is like forty bucks a glass, so it definitely will not.”

Fred glanced over his shoulder, surveying the room. The restaurant had a wooden lattice covering the glass ceiling, so the atmosphere wasn’t quite as obnoxious as the casino proper, but he was still on edge. And they were technically in a training session. A small part of her suspected that he wouldn’t be relaxed even if they weren’t. The thought made her grin.

“I’ll have to take you out when we aren’t on duty,” she said, and he looked back over at her. “Won’t have to worry about getting a performance review after the fact.”

“What is actually the point of this? Are we supposed to be looking for something or someone?” He covered his fist with his other hand and squeezed, popping his knuckles. Definitely not relaxed. “The DIs were pretty vague about it.”

“Like I said, just acclimatising you to civilian settings. This is the best part about training Spartans. I went through the same with the Gammas.” 

The waitress came back and delivered their food and drink, and Veta waited until she left before leaning in and continuing. “So the goal is to look as natural and unassuming as possible. Enjoy yourself.”

He looked deeply skeptical of her advice, but his attention was quickly drawn toward their order. A huge plate of finger food had been placed in the middle of the table, along with a bottle of wine. She poured them both a glass and they dug into their meal.

“You look good in a suit, by the way,” she said around a cracker. “Even better than service khakis.”

His ears turned red at the compliment, but he did his best not to look flustered. “It’s heavier than what I’m used to wearing. Outside of Mjolnir,” he added, seeing her raised brow.

“Take off your jacket, then. It’s hot anyway.” She followed her own advice and tossed her own onto the seat beside her. 

He watched her and then repeated what she did, except he folded his jacket up into a neat square—something she’d never been able to accomplish—before placing it on the seat next to him. 

Despite his initial reluctance, Fred did begin to relax, and she watched him slowly unwind as the night got on. He looked over his shoulder less and ate more, and the wine made his cheeks flush a wonderful rosy colour. He seemed to enjoy it, too, despite earlier assertions about the taste. It was weirdly normal. She didn’t feel on guard the way she did with the Gammas, mostly because she knew she didn’t have to protect Fred from anything other than overdoing it on chardonnay—which he mostly definitely had more than one glass of—and lobster. 

“I take it you’re enjoying the food?”

“Best I’ve had in years,” he replied. He was struggling to look dignified while removing the lobster meat from the shell, though he turned down any offers of assistance.

“Really? You don’t go out and celebrate the weekly Purple Hearts you get?”

“I only have eleven,” was all he said in the way of explanation, too focused on his lobster.

When they got to dessert, she ordered them both coffee and cake, and asked the waitress to slip in a bit of whiskey on the side. Then she stretched out, knocked her feet with his under the table, and grinned at him. Three glasses in, and he was grinning, too. 

“Wanna go gambling after this?”

“Why?” He took a sip of water and slouched down into the seat. His tie had followed after his jacket, and he’d even gone so far as to unbutton the top of his collar. 

“It’s fun,” she explained. “Especially when it’s with other people’s money.”

“What else is there to do?” He tipped his head up to the ceiling and blinked at the fish. “Swimming?”

“We could go make out in the bathroom.”

His eyes snapped back to her as his skin turned a deeper shade of pink. “The bathroom?”

“Yeah. Private stalls, nice and cosy. People do it,” she insisted, seeing his brows furrow. 

“I don’t believe you.” 

“Wanna go find out?”

He looked out into the dining room. The restaurant was intimate enough that most people didn’t pay attention to anything outside their booth, and the wait staff mostly made themselves invisible unless called upon. And given they were supposed to be training for covert operations, sneaking into a bathroom stall should be a breeze.

Fred apparently made a similar assessment, but he still seemed doubtful when he looked back at her. 

“How about our hotel bathroom?” she suggested as a compromise, trying to keep the humour out of her voice.

“Why would we—” He cut himself off when he saw the look in her eye. “How about we finish dessert first?”

She never got to negotiate further. Their table and all the dishes on top of it rocked with a sudden tremor, and Fred’s head snapped in the direction of what she assumed was the source, though she hadn’t heard anything. By the time she registered what was happening, he was out of the booth and gripping the pistol holstered under one of his arms. He didn’t bother to grab his jacket. 

Another tremor rocked the casino, and this time she did hear something detonate. Then people began screaming. 

“You sober enough to run?” She asked, slipping out of her side of the booth.

“Are you?”

“Guess we’ll find out,” she replied. Veta spotted the waitress and motioned for her to get under a table, then turned to Fred. “Ready for the fun part of the date to start?”

“Thought you said this was just acclimation training.” 

“You can never trust ONI.” She grabbed for her own gun and let him take point. He seemed steady enough on his feet, and the kick of adrenaline had sobered her some. Still, she stuck close and used the wall for support. 

“Go tell the people in the restaurant to leave out of the eastern exit,” he ordered, dragging them to the nearest support beam and ducking behind it.

_ “I  _ am in charge of this—”

“I’m generating a quake render of the casino,” he replied. “We can look at it  _ together  _ after you get the civilians out.”

He sounded a little less professional than usual, and it sapped her of any further annoyance. She grinned. “Just as long as you know who’s boss.”

“I never forget,” he muttered. More screaming came from the casino proper, and he raised a brow at her. 

She got to work without issuing any further complaints.


	7. Thirdwheeling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Day Nine: Thirdwheeling - Your OTP plus a third wheel. Is it awkwardly quiet, or chaotically crazy?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is connected to my other fic [You Need to Relax](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20379865/chapters/48334426), though it's not required reading before starting this. The tl;dr is that everyone is a third wheel when you share a house with a bunch of Spartans.
> 
> FYI this one is a bit spicy. Not enough to justify bumping up the rating to M, but I'll just leave this disclaimer here.

Lopis sat with her back to him, her legs folded beneath her on the couch as she listened to Ash explain how simple cipher worked. He watched her from the periphery of his field of view, his gaze fixed to the wall beside the kitchen doorway. Every so often he would glance around so he wasn’t staring at a fixed point in space, but he was careful not to let his eyes drift in her direction. 

A fist came down on his knee and Fred sat up in his chair. Linda was frowning at him from across the table. While he’d been drifting off, she’d captured two more of his pawns.

She tapped the corner of the chess board. “Don’t have all day.”

“Sorry.” 

The landscape in front of him was a bleak one; when given his full concentration, most chess games with Linda were simply a delay of the inevitable. He and Kelly only ever counted the number of moves they could make before being defeated. There was no point in trying to win.

But he wasn’t giving this game his full attention, or even half of it. Even as he studied the board he wanted to look up, because now Lopis was laughing at a joke Ash had told. 

He gripped the table with a frown under the guise of planning strategy. Fred stared at his remaining chess pieces as the rules of the game fled his mind. As he reached for one of his few pawns, Linda shook her head.

“I’m not playing if you won’t try.”

He stroked the top of the pawn and clenched his jaw, though he was barely paying attention to the game in front of them. He wanted to tell Lopis the cipher Ash was playing with was a substitution cipher with an inverted alphabet and shifted three letters. Fred knew because he’d taught him that one. They were good exercises in visualisation, as most Spartans played them without pen and paper. They were also a good way to pass the time when out on patrol.

When Linda sighed, he grabbed his knight and moved two squares up and one right, and he hadn’t even pulled his hand away when Linda grabbed her bishop and captured it. 

He looked up at her sheepishly, expecting to find her annoyed. Instead she looked concerned. The hand still holding his knight was resting on the table, and her index finger crooked in question. 

“Just thinking too hard,” he told her. It wasn’t really a lie.

“And not about chess, obviously.”

They both looked over at the couch as Ash and Olivia erupted into laughter. Lopis was up on her knees now, her fingers gripping the back of the couch and one hand pointed accusingly in their direction. 

“Do  _ not _ say that!”

“I’m not swearing at you!” Ash yelled back, still laughing. “That’s part of the cipher!”

“You shouldn’t even  _ know _ that word—”

“Fred taught it to me!”

As the focus of their conversation shifted over to his side of the room, Lopis looked over her shoulder at him. Her eyes were bright, her expression indignant. 

“You taught them a slur-based cipher?”

“No,” he said, trying to force down his grin. It wouldn’t help his case. “That variant just happens to have a lot of clue words that include…. unsavoury phrases—”

“So it is!”

“Not intentionally—”

Lopis was shaking her head, and now he couldn’t help the smile growing across his face. He saw her mouth twitch as she fought down her own, determined to lean into her outrage.

“Hooligans!” she shouted as she turned around, redirecting her anger at the Gammas, who only dissolved into further laughter.

When he glanced back to their table, Linda didn’t look concerned anymore. She raised a brow and he sat back in his seat, fighting down the heat rising to his face.

“Reset the board,” he said, and she responded with a smile.

“If you say so.”

* * *

He was grateful for Mendez putting them up, but with ten people in one house, privacy was virtually impossible—something he hadn’t cared about a week ago. 

Fred sat miserably on the back porch, unmoved for once by the crisp afternoon air as he tried and failed to read the book in his hands. He’d picked it up during the long wait in the transit port on their way to Onyx, but all the words were just blurring together.

“Hey, LT,” Tom called as he walked up the path to the house. His hair was wet from swimming in the nearby river, his bag slung over his shoulder. He looked more relaxed than Fred was used to seeing him, and the sight of Tom eased some of the fury of his thoughts. “I thought you were taking a ride out to the ponds with Lopis.”

“Was,” he said. “But there’s been developments with the arson case and Mendez asked her for some help, so she’s at the station today instead.”

“Ah.” Tom let his bag fall on the steps up to the porch and cocked his head to read the spine of the book in Fred’s hands. He raised a brow. “Is that Cantonese?”

“Mandarin,” he replied. “I’m getting rusty. Thought I’d practice.”

“Sounds fun. Well—” He looked toward the side of the house that lead into the garage. “Kelly wants to take a tour of the Wading Forests. You’re welcome to join us.”

He nodded. Kelly had already offered, and he’d almost accepted. But he also knew Kelly, and they’d be out there for several hours at least. And he had a waiting game to play.

“Think I’ll stick here,” he said. 

“Suit yourself, sir. I gotta go repack my bag.”

Tom loped up the stairs and shoved through the back door, dragging his pack with him. Fred sighed and let the book fall into his lap, then checked his comm again. 

> _ ETA?  _

He’d sent Lopis the message an hour ago, and had no response yet. The temptation to be petulant was a strong one, but there was no point in sending her another. 

So he’d just have to wait.

Fred opened his book again and stared down at the pages, absorbing nothing.

* * *

At some point he must have fallen asleep, because the sun was at a much lower angle in the sky when he looked up from the paperback in his lap. Fred rolled his head, trying to ease the stiffness in his neck and shoulders. Halsey had explained to him how the solar cycles on Onyx worked, but he still didn’t fully understand how the star moved inside the Dyson sphere.

But his confusion didn’t prevent him from appreciating the copper-burnished sky, or the light refracting off the river surface Tom had swam in earlier. Mendez’s home was near the outskirts of the Trevelyan complex, and his backyard blended easily into the forest beyond the small research town. He hadn’t bothered with any fencing, so the hills that spilled out across the landscape were uninterrupted by any human activity. 

“Looked like it was a good nap.”

The voice was deep and gravelly, and it shot him up to his feet in an instant. The book fell to the floor as he looked across the porch to see Mendez standing there with a beer bottle in his hand. He struggled to suppress the urge to apologise.

The Chief seemed to notice his chagrin. The hard lines of his face softened in a small smile as he spoke again. “I know there aren’t a lot of opportunities for them.”

“No, sir,” Fred replied, then paused to stretch out his back. “But I don’t recommend falling asleep on a wooden deck.”

Mendez chuckled quietly, and it finally dawned on Fred what his presence here meant. He bent down to pick up the fallen book to mask his excitement. “Done at the station for today?”

“Yeah,” he sighed, and tipped the bottom of the beer bottle up to take a long sip. “For now. We’re still hurting for forensic specialists of any kind all the way out here, so the Inspector’s a godsend. But I don’t want to eat up her leave with work either.”

Fred didn’t ask where Lopis was. It still made him uneasy to see the Chief so relaxed. Relaxed always meant he was planning something. 

But this wasn’t Reach. Quite the opposite.

He cleared his throat awkwardly. “Glad to hear it, sir.”

Fred was saved from further tactlessness when the screen door opened. He looked towards the door—and then down as he realised that whoever opened it was not a Spartan.

His heart pulled up as Lopis shot him a grin. “Finally awake, I see. Restful sleep?”

He smiled. “More or less.”

“I’m happy for you.” She looked towards Mendez. “Lucy was waving for you. I think she wants someone to order food.”

Mendez nodded and set his beer down on the railing. “Any dinner preferences?”

“I’m starving, so no.”

When Fred indicated the same, Lopis let the Chief past before stepping out onto the porch and closing the screen door. She kept a respectable distance between them, but this time her grin was full of warmth.

“Tough day for you,” she said.

“Long day,” he corrected her. “Lots of waiting.”

“I know, I’m sorry.” She walked over to the railing beside him and leaned back against it. “I don’t mean to keep bailing—”

“Not your fault,” he replied. He felt her fingers brush his as she gripped the rail and he did his best not to react. No one was around, but that didn’t mean they were alone. “Mendez said you’ve been invaluable for them with this case.”

“That’s nice of him.” He saw her head tip up in his periphery and indulged in looking her way. Her eyes were warm, too. “You look a bit pink. How long did you sleep out here?”

He felt his face heat as he checked his watch. “Two hours, I think. I didn’t really plan for it.”

“How unlike you.” 

She’d crept closer and closer as they’d spoken, and now she was close enough that he caught the smell of her skin. She must have been doing some hard walking, because her clothes clung to her from exertion, and her hair was stuck to her neck with sweat. 

He glanced toward the door to confirm no one was around. When he looked back, Lopis settled her hand on his arm and smiled up at him. He knew by now what that meant, and his heart picked up as he stooped down to meet her—

—only to jerk back up when he heard footsteps in the grass behind them. Neither her hearing or her reflexes were as good, so it took her a moment to register what was happening before stepping back. 

He exhaled sharply as he watched the Gammas approach the porch from the other side of the house. When he looked back down at her, she was scowling. 

“We can still go to the ponds,” he told her.

“I’ve already done enough walking for a week,” she said tiredly. “There was a new scene we had to walk, and I swear it was uphill both ways.” Then she took another step away, looking over her shoulder to wave at her team before looking back at him. Without a smile, the exhaustion on her face was clear. “I’ve got to go shower anyway.”

He leaned on the railing so he had something to clench his hands around. “Alright.”

“Don’t be grumpy,” she said then, and he looked down at her. “It was a long day for me, too. I didn’t get a lot of work done.”

He grinned. “Neither did I.”

She raised a brow. “Clearly.”

“Mom!” Olivia called then, and she turned. “Lieutenant! Hi.”

“How was training?” Lopis asked. He was amazed at how easily she could strike a casual tone. He was still recovering from the hand she’d placed on his arm.

“Really cool!” Ash exclaimed. “Today we did some live drills. Rubber rounds, but still.”

“You look sunburnt,” Mark said to Fred. “What did you do?”

“Lost track of time,” he replied evasively, and Lopis laughed so quietly he was the only one who could hear it.

* * *

It took another five hours until either of them had a moment alone. Part of him felt guilty; Lopis fought off sleep as everyone slowly trickled upstairs to bed, insisting she still had some work to do. Fred once again sought the cover of reading, still retaining nothing as he read the same passage over and over again.

It took every shred of discipline in him to stay on the opposite side of the couch. Sneaking in even an accidental brush of hands was tempting fate. And Lopis had a much better poker face than he did; she seemed fully engrossed in the screen of her laptop, using it as an excuse to stave off any lengthy conversation. By 2200, only Ash was awake, half-watching the gravball game on the holo as he splayed out on the other couch. 

Fred snuck a glance over at Lopis. She was still staring at her screen, her fingers occasionally brushing over the keyboard, and she was doing such a good job that he began to wonder if she actually just wanted to do work. 

When he looked over at Ash, he was fighting to stay awake. 

“Go to bed, Ash.”

“Wanna see the end of the game,” he muttered. Fred couldn’t see how, since his arm was slung over his eyes to shield them from the harsh light of the TV.

“You can watch it tomorrow—properly,” he added, seeing one of Ash’s eyes peek out from under his arm. 

Ash deliberated for a moment, toying between being contrary and being reasonable. Eventually he sighed and heaved himself off the couch, then shut off the holo. “Yeah I guess.” The kid stood up and groaned as he stretched. “I’m gonna have so many bruises tomorrow. Olivia shot me in the ass.”

Fred opted to respond only with a grin, not wanting to delay Ash with further conversation. Then he yawned and stretched again before shuffling towards the stairs. 

“‘Night Mom, LT.”

“Goodnight,” Lopis said absently, not looking up.

Fred forced down his impatience as Ash took his sweet time walking up the stairs, his hand fisted in the cushion of the couch. 

After ninety seconds, Lopis spoke again, her voice still casual. “He’s gone up?”

“Yeah, I just heard is door cl—”

Lopis was in his lap the next instant, shoving him back and kissing him hard enough to make him groan. He wasn’t sure how she’d moved so quickly, but he wasn’t about to stop her to find out. 

_ “Finally,” _ she muttered, straddling him, and he felt himself already shaking with relief as she pressed into him. Her fingers threaded through his short hair and she rolled her body into his as she continued to kiss him senseless. It was all he could do to react, barely matching each of her movements. He wasn’t used to playing catch-up.

He wrapped his arms around her, holding her against him and aligning every point of contact he could. She nudged him again, pushing him to lie down onto the couch. He complied, and the moment his back pressed into the cushions her fingers began to work their way under his shirt, sliding up his abdomen and making him shudder violently.

“You  _ are _ sunburnt,” she whispered, smiling against his mouth. “Your skin’s cooler under your shirt.”

He didn’t respond. Every nerve in his body was focused on her. It had been twenty-six hours since the last time she’d kissed him, and he’d been miserable for every single one of them.  _ Clouded  _ was not the right word for how absent his thoughts had become, but now they coalesced along a razor’s edge, so vivid and sharp he’d slice himself open if he wasn’t careful. 

“And you feel really good,” Lopis continued. Her mouth was at his ear now, and he felt the graze of her teeth. “Take off your shirt.”

Blood thundered in his ears. He tried to think around it, figure out how it was possible to shed his shirt without letting her move away from him. He sat up, holding her close, kissing her while he reached back and grabbed at the neck of his shirt to pull over his head. Lopis drew back only far and long enough for him to get out of his t-shirt, but even that was too long. Once he let it fall to the ground, it was his turn to draw her in suddenly, and she groaned in turn as her hands traced over now-exposed skin.

They’d only done this twice before, kissing properly without being rushed or forced apart, and never so close to other people. Their trips to the ponds guaranteed solitude, but they were difficult to travel to and taking too many drives out there would raise suspicions. 

When he fell back to the couch she drew away again, this time to pull off her own shirt. So much time on starships had made her lose some of her colour, but it had come back instantly under Onyx’s artificial sun. New freckles dotted her collarbone and shoulders, disrupted only by the strap of a bra. Then Lopis ducked down again to kiss him, and all the breath in his lungs escaped as her skin pressed into his. Maybe they’d only done this a few times, but never like this. Perhaps the wait had been worth it.

She was so close he could feel her heartbeat throb against his own chest, beating as wildly as his. Her breath came heavier as she kissed him more deeply, and he felt his body curve and arch naturally upwards to meet hers. It was instinctual, something he did without knowing, and despite the heat of her body he felt goosebumps prickle across his skin. She was shuddering too as she rolled her hips against him.

It worked him up something fierce. It was panic without the danger, a high without the pain. It felt so good he struggled to process it, and it was all he could do to kiss her, taste her breath in his mouth. So much of her was pressed to so much of him that her small mass didn’t end up mattering. He could still feel her everywhere.

So when she gasped and sat up, it took him a moment to figure out. Fred blinked up at her, dazed, his hands falling to rest on either leg she’d thrown over his hips. Lopis was struggling to catch her breath, her hands braced on his chest, but her attention was drawn down to their central point of contact. 

He followed her line of sight. His pants strained against the force of a painful erection, and his face grew even hotter. 

“That’s—” She took another breath and looked at him. Her grin was wobbly. “That’s new.”

He swallowed and nodded, propping himself up with a hand on the couch behind him. She grabbed his bicep and pressed her forehead to his shoulder, laughing breathlessly.

“Sorry,” she whispered. “I wasn’t, ah—expecting that.”

He caught his own breath in the meantime, drawing her close to his chest. “Neither was I,” he murmured.

She looked up. “Have you, um. I mean, do you know what—”

“Have I gotten an erection before?” he finished for her, and to his surprise she blushed. Fred gave her a lopsided grin. “Yes, I have.”

“Probably a stupid question. I just thought—well, never mind. Stupid,” she repeated, and a nervous laugh escaped her. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be.” He kissed her jaw, not able to help himself, and she leaned into the contact. When she shifted closer the movement jostled his hips, and he swallowed back a groan. 

Lopis noticed anyway and drew back again. “I don’t….” She swallowed. “Fred—”

“What?”

“I like kissing you,” she whispered. “A lot. Probably too much,” she added, and he felt himself grin again. “But this is new, like I said. And I don’t know if I can commit to—maybe if we could just stick to kissing—”

“As opposed to what?” 

She frowned as her blush deepened. “You know, dealing with—” She gestured down. “That.”

He smiled. “‘That’.”

“Yes.”

“I’ve had to deal with them by myself for over thirty years,” he replied, catching her point. “It’s no different now.”

She nodded, giving him a grateful look he didn’t quite understand. Lopis leaned against the couch, sighing deeply.

“Does it annoy you?” she asked then, sounding genuinely curious. He really wanted to keep kissing her, but it was probably a good idea to get his heart rate and breathing under control first.

“It’s mostly just a nuisance to take care of,” he replied. “Especially in open barracks.”

She laughed. “I imagine.” Lopis leaned over and kissed him again, softly. “Does it hurt?”

Fred shrugged. “It’s nothing to worry about, really. I’ll deal with it after.” He kissed her back and smiled softly. “Pain isn't really the right word, either. It’s not bad.”

“Suppose you would know.” She closed her eyes and nodded, wrapping her arms around his neck. “I just—I want to, believe me. Just—”

“Want to?”

“Touch you,” she whispered. His centre of gravity pitched up into his throat. 

“Ah.”

“I just can’t make promises. I have a lot of issues,” she said dismissively, but her eyes were serious. “For now we’ll just see—”

He heard movement above them and sat up properly, setting her down beside him and reaching for his shirt. Lopis tipped her head up and, when she heard someone walking, sighed. 

“God dammit,” she muttered, standing up and looking for her own shirt. Fred passed it to her and he pulled on his own. 

She watched him wistfully, standing so far away from him now. “Maybe stay seated if someone comes down,” she said, and then tossed him a pillow. He grinned and laid it over his lap.

They stayed silent and still after she pulled her shirt back on, tracking the footsteps from the bedroom to the bathroom. He recognised Lucy’s tiny footfalls—no one else was that quiet. 

He counted. It took nearly three minutes for her to return back to bed, and he waited an additional sixty seconds before looking back towards Lopis.

She raised a brow, and when he nodded, she walked back over to him. He tossed the pillow away and she took up the space it had inhabited on his legs. She kissed him again, her hands cupping his face. It was slower now, gentler, as if they had all the time in the world instead of the furor of before. He felt himself relax back into the sofa as his joints unclenched. 

It wound down slowly, and even when they eventually ended up laying back on the couch he never quite stopped kissing her. There were only longer pauses in between, filled with soft breathing or a small murmur. They must have been on the couch for over an hour at least, because he saw the automatic lights outside shut off for the night. 

Lopis was drifting, not quite asleep but not totally awake. Her weight on his chest was an afterthought, and despite having done nothing but sit around the house all day, he felt his eyelids begin to droop, too.

Her face pressed into his neck and she drew a deep breath. “Mendez asked me about you,” she whispered.

He settled his arm around her. “About what?”

“If I knew why you were acting weird,” she said, and he felt her smile against his throat. “I told him you were still pretty stressed out.” Her hand felt around his chest until she located his heartbeat. “How  _ are _ you feeling?”

“Great,” he murmured, and she laughed at that. “A lot better than I was a few hours ago.”

“I know. It was hard to concentrate on the case. My brain hasn’t worked all week.” Her head nestled in closer to his chest and she closed her eyes. “And now I’m exhausted.”

“Are you going back in with him tomorrow?”

“Probably,” she said, her tone resigned. “I should really get some sleep. And you’re pretty comfortable.”

“We can’t stay here,” he whispered, though he didn’t bother to keep the disappointment out of his voice.

Lopis nodded. “I know.”

She didn’t move though, and he didn’t either. He heard her breath slowly even out as it blew out softly across his collarbone. She drew her arms in close to herself, pressing them against his chest, and he found himself wishing for a blanket.

Or not. They really couldn’t fall asleep on the couch. 

What hit him was deeper and sharper than disappointment. He felt bitter that things weren’t different, and it had been a long time since he felt that way.

Fred sat up slowly, carefully, adjusting Lopis so that she rose up with him. She resisted with a groan and grabbed for a fistful of his shirt. “I don’t wanna get up,” she complained, nearly a whine.

His mouth twitched. “You don’t have to.”

“You’re gonna carry me?” 

“You’re not that heavy.” He stood up, his arm still around her back, and his other hooked under her calves to support her legs. She was fully awake now and stared up at him, a ponderous expression on her face. 

He smiled down at her. “I can sling your over my back in a fireman’s carry if you’d prefer.”

She covered her mouth with a hand to stifle a laugh. “Yeah, I’m good.”

“You’ll have to walk into your room,” he told her as he moved towards the stairs. “But I can walk you up.”

“How gracious.”

He took the stairs slowly, one at a time, savouring the warmth of her so close by. Her head rested against his arm, and he could feel her smiling sleepily up at him in the dark. 

“We probably can’t do this again for a while,” Lopis murmured. “At least not here. Tom told me he and Lucy are switching to nights in a few days.”

“It’s alright.” He got to the top of the second floor landing far too soon, and stopped just by her door. With limited space, she slept in the same room as the Gammas, and he wasn’t feeling quite that uninhibited. 

Fred set her down gently, and while she certainly didn’t need help to keep her balance, she still kept a hold of him as she stood up properly. 

Her fingers squeezed around his bicep, and he looked away from her door and down at her. She smiled ruefully at him. “Later,” she whispered, and then crooked a finger for him to bend down. 

He kissed her again, a few times, wondering which one would be the last, before she broke away and sighed. 

“Later,” he said back to her. It wasn’t a farewell so much as a promise. And she smiled back at him before heading toward her door on stiff, half-asleep legs with a parting squeeze of her fingers.

Fred slipped in silently to Blue Team’s quarters and settled down on his own bed, not bothering to take off any of his clothes. They still smelled like her.


End file.
